Maputo, 5 Sep (AIM) – The High Court in London on Monday threw out the attempt by the Abu Dhabi group, Privinvest, to drag Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi into the civil case arising from the scandal of Mozambique’s “hidden debts”.
Judge Robin Knowles decided that Nyusi enjoys immunuity while he is a serving Head of State, and so cannot be tried in the civil case on the “hidden debts” which is now before the High Court.
“The conclusion of this court is that, in relation to the claims alleged aginst him in these proceedings, he (Nyusi) has immunity from the jurisdiction of this Court while he is Head of State of the Republic”, Knowles said in his ruling.
The trial rises from attempts by the Mozambican government, represented by the Attorney-General’s Office (PGR), to have the state guarantees for the debts declared null and void.
In 2012 and 2013, three fraudulent Mozambican companies, essentually set up by the intelligence service, SISE, namely Proindicus, Ematum (Mozambique Tuna Comany) and MAM (Mozambique Asset Management), obtained loans of over two billion dollars from the banks Credit Suisse and VTB of Russia.
The banks only granted the loans because they were guaranteed by the Mozambican government, under the then President Armando Guebuza. Guebuza’s Finance Minister, Manuel Chang (currently under police custody in New York), signed the guarantees, even though they were clearly illegal.
The loans smashed through the ceilings on loan guarantees established by the 2013 and 2014 buget laws, and did not have the necessary authorisation from the country’s parliament, the Assembly of the Republic.
Privinvest became the sole contractor for the three companies, and sold them fishing boats, patrol vessels, radar stations and other assets at vastly inflated prices. The 2016/2017 independent audit of the companies put the over-invoicing at more than 700 million dollars.
Privinvest secured its contracts by lavishly bribing Chang and other Mozambican officials and the Credit Suisse bankers who negotiated the loans. Three Credit Suisse bankers, Andrew Pearse, Detelina Subeva and Surjan Singh, confessed to receiving Privinvest bribes.
Predictably, the three companies soon went bankrupt, and so what had been hidden loans became hidden debts. Mozambique hopes to avoid paying those debts, by having the London court declare the guarantees null and void.
Privinvest defended itself, first by denying the competence of a British court to hear the case. After it lost this dispute over jurisdiction, Privinvest argued that since Nyusi had also benefitted from the money of the hidden debts, he too should be a defendant.
Privinvest claims that Nyusi benefitted directly from the money of the hidden debts, to a total value of 11 million dollars (10 million paid by Privinvest to finance the 2014 election campaign of the Frelimo Party and one million to finance the presidential campaign of Nyusi himself). Privinvest argued that Nyusi should therefore be held jointly liable, if Privinvest is found guilty.
Privinvest has always denied paying bribes – yet in this case it admits paying millions of dollars to Nyusi and Frelimo. The claim was first made publicly in the 2019 trial in New York of Privinvest official Jean Boustani.
Nyusi has never commented on the claim, which so far depends entirely on statements made by Privinvest.
It seems that Privinvest’s effort to force Nyusi to trial is just an attempt to persuade the Mozambican State to drop the case. It is noteworthy that other figures who received money from the hidden debts have not been listed by Privinvest to respond jointly and severally in the case.
Prominent among these are the former leaders of SISE, Gregório Leão and António Carlos do Rosário, and Guebuza’s oldest son, Ndambi Guebuza. A Maputo court last year found them guilty of taking bribes from Privinvest but the company did not ask for them to be considered jointly responsible.
Knowles noted that the acts of which Privinvest accused Nyusi were committed before he became President and were “not in his public capacity or part of his official functions”.
So could Nyusi be called to the London court after he has left office, which will be in February 2025? By then, however, the case may well be over, and Privinvest may have no interest in Nyusi as a private citizen rather than as Head of State.
The argument that “Nyusi made me do it” has also been invoked by Chang, who faces trial in a New York court on charges arising from the hidden debts. The claim is wafer thin, since the man running the government at the time was not Nyusi, but Guebuza.
(AIM)
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